Rosberg fastest in FP2 as Ferrari and Raikkonen look extremely quick

(Mercedes AMG F1 Team)

 

Mercedes Nico Rosberg topped the timesheets during Free Practice 2 for Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix. The German ended the day just four one thousands of a second ahead of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen who continued to impress for the Italian team having finished this morning's first session in 2nd place. Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel showed encouraging signs for Red Bull Racing finishing third.

 

After topping the timesheets in the opening session this morning Lewis Hamilton was fourth fastest in the second Mercedes showing that the Brackley based squad would appear to be the team to beat once again this weekend. Fernando Alonso was fifth fastest for Ferrari. So for the first time in 2014 Kimi Raikkonen has ended two session's ahead of his Ferrari team mate.

 

It was an impressive afternoon session for Felipe Massa in the Williams FW36 as he finished the day in 6th place just ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in the second Red Bull. Jenson Button, who once again was running McLaren's new front wing was 8th fastest with Valtteri Bottas in 9th place in the second Williams.

 

Force India's Nico Hulkenberg showed impressive pace by rounding out the top ten in the VJM07. Jean Eric Vergne was 11th fastest for Toro Rosso while Kevin Magnussen  finished his day in 12th place for McLaren.

 

Adrian Sutil was 13th for Sauber just ahead of the second Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat. Esteban Gutierrez was 15th in the second Sauber just ahead of Force India's Sergio Perez who managed to get to on out track in FP2 following a disappointing opening session. The Lotus F1 Team's poor start the 2014 season continued as with 17 minute's to go Romain Grojean stopped out on track while Pastor Maldonado failed to make it out of the garage in the second session following a power unit failure this morning.

 

It was a disappointing session for the Caterham of Kamui Kobayashi as along with Maldonado in the Lotus his failed to make it out on track. Max Chilton had a disappointing second session as his Marussia came to stop just four minute's into the session. However he managed to get back out on track and finished the day ahead of his team mate Jules Bianchi. Marcus Ericsson rounded out the timesheets in the second Caterham.

 

The final practice session ahead of Sunday's race gets underway tomorrow morning at 5AM (Irish time).

 

©Ben Johnaton 2014